Senior Jill Yoder has been a birdwatcher since she was young. Yoder’s parents were the ones who inspired her passion for birdwatching. 

“My parents tell me I’ve enjoyed watching birds my whole life, but the time I remember being very interested was when I was seven. I saw some birds at our bird feeder and suddenly was curious about what kind of birds they were. I looked in a field guide and found out that they were house sparrows. After that, I became interested in identifying all the species I saw,” Yoder said.

The equipment that Yoder uses when she looks for birds are binoculars and a spotting scope. 

“Most of the time I use binoculars while birding. My family also has a spotting scope that we use to see birds that are farther away and more stationary; like ducks or seabirds,” Yoder said.

An aspect that Yoder enjoys about birdwatching is the challenge of seeing how many birds she can find.

“One of my favorite parts of birding is challenging myself to see how many species I can spot,” Yoder said. 

Yoder’s favorite spot to birdwatch isn’t her backyard, she prefers birdwatching near the beach since there’s more of a diversity of birds. 

“I like birding on vacations to the beach, like the Eastern Shore or Outer Banks. There are so many species there that we don’t get closer to home,” Yoder said. 

With birdwatching, Yoder has been able to appreciate nature much more beyond the birds. She’s become interested in trees and seashells. 

“Through birding, I’ve come to appreciate and learn about other parts of nature and the outdoors. A few topics that come to mind include seashells, trees and reptiles,” Yoder said.

With Yoder being a student at Massanutten Regional Governer’s School (MRGS), she’s been able to apply her passion to research on comparing different crow calls. 

“The last two years at Gov School, I’ve been doing a research project comparing the calls of different crow species. I’ve had a lot of fun doing that and I think a job involving some kind of bird research would be something I’d enjoy,” Yoder said.

One of Yoder’s greatest discoveries she’s experienced through birdwatching was seeing a Wilson’s Warbler in her backyard. 

“I love getting to see species I’ve never seen before or ones that I’m not expecting. For example, one January a couple [of] years ago there was a Wilson’s Warbler in my backyard, which is a very rare occurrence for that time of year,” Yoder said.

Yoder enjoys birdwatching the most with members of her family. 

“Usually I go birding with others in my family. After I became interested in birds, I got my parents and sister involved as well, so now it’s something we all enjoy doing,” Yoder said.

When it comes to identifying the birds that Yoder comes across, she typically looks for different features of the bird. If it is one she’s familiar with, she usually knows what bird it is, but if its a more unique bird, she uses field guides or the internet to her benefit. 

“I look for things like colors and markings, behavior, habitat and calls to determine what bird it is. For common birds, I usually can tell off the top of my head, but if it’s something I don’t recognize then I use field guides or the internet to help me,” Yoder said.

To keep track of the birds she comes across, Yoder uses a citizen science website called eBird.

“I use eBird to record checklists of birds. It’s a citizen science website where people submit bird observations to keep track of the species they’ve seen, and scientists can use it to track bird populations and distributions,” Yoder said.

With birdwatching being an outdoor activity, Yoder finds it to be a calming experience. 

“I usually find being outside calming, so birding by extension, is as well,” Yoder said.